Interview: Liam Kavanaugh
CBI talked with Irish writer and creator Liam Kavanagh about his career in comics...
JMH: Where were you born and raised?
LIAM: I was born in County Wexford in the South-East of Ireland and raised on a farm in a small village there called Kilmuckridge, where I still live.
JMH: Tell CBI about yourself…
LIAM: I'm 28 years old, and divide my time between writing for comics with writing for stage and screen as well as being part of the writing staff at media website www.the-arcade.ie. My hobbies are watching movies, playing guitar, playing and watching soccer, gaming and of course reading comics!
JMH: Have you had any formal training in writing?
LIAM: I spent 4 years in Tallaght IT in Dublin on their Audio Visual Media Degree, which included training in writing and filmmmaking, but I had been teaching myself for years before that.
JMH: Who are your writing influences?
LIAM: I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and I take a lot of influence from screenwriters like Shane Black, Joss Whedon, Charlie Kaufman, genre writers like David Goyer John Milius and Steven E. DeSouza, and Stephen J. Cannell (that's a lot of Stephens!) Comics wise, I'd be kicked out of the club if I didn't mention Stan Lee, Frank Miller, and Alan Moore.
JMH: How did you break into writing comic books?
LIAM: I started off trying to get my own comics company off the ground, which eventually gave rise to the ongoing series Wulfen, that I write for CE Publishing with artist Ed Doyle. After that I branched out with some short stories for anthologies like FutureQuake and MEGABOOK. I owe a lot to online resources like Digital Webbing and LinkedIn for opening up contacts with artists and avenues where I could get my writing out to indie publishers too.
JMH: What is the first comic you remember reading?
LIAM: It was a Green Lantern one-shot that came with an action figure I got at around age 7. Wish I still had the model ring that came with it too, since it’d be about the only bling I’d ever wear!
JMH: Do you read any of the new comic books that are being published today?
LIAM: I'm a little behind on new issues, but I really dig a lot of the new stuff that's out, things like Batman RIP amd The Dark Avengers are amazing. The problem nowadays is there's so much stuff out there that I kind of have to be a magpie with it now - pick whatever catches my eye and hope for the best.
JMH: Print versus Digital. Your thoughts…
LIAM: I think there's room for both. Digital lets you do so much, it's a great method of expanding the market particularly for indie creators, but print will always be around because no matter how good the technology gets and how wide it reaches, you can't beat the feeling of opening up a new comic, turning to the first page and getting lost in the stories.
JMH: Writer’s block. How do you get around that creature?
LIAM: The Drawer. Or The Chest. Or whatever you call the place where you keep those little ideas you have when the writing is flowing well but can't get to at the time. When I have writer's block, I dig out those ideas, go back over them, see if I can find something to spark some inspiration, or just clean up something. When I'm busy with that, it makes room for whatever I'm stuck on to work through.
JMH: Talk about the New IMPERIALS...
LIAM: Well, first off the writer's awesome! Just kidding. I love the idea of THE IMPERIALS, because they're kind of classical, they've got those ties to the World War II Imperials, and Network is your classic James Bond spy outfit, and kind of niche at the same time. A lot of popular hero characters lose some of their quirk trying to be broader and rope in international audiences, and you have to try and look in different places to find original twists for characters like this. British and Irish history has lots of it; myths, legends, crazy inventors and inventions, always something to get the imagination going and give a character personality. Culverin for instance - in issue 1 he names the suit after that type of cannon because that's how he behaves. Big, noisy and capable of causing serious damage.
The other reason I like the concept is purely personal - I love teams-on-missions stories. The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, obviously The Avengers, everyone with a special skill and a personality that mixes together to get the job done. If I get The Imperials anywhere close to that level, then I'll consider my job done.
JMH: What are your plans for future stories?
LIAM: Well I don't wanna give too much away, cause I won't be alone putting it all together, but if you've read issue one, there's plenty of stuff to come - Avalon has to meet up with the other Imperials, we're gonna find out more about BlackRod, and of course just what that project the mysterious stranger in those last panels was talking about is. Let's just say that The Imperials haven't smashed their last robot suit by a long stretch...
JMH: Do you research your story ideas? If so, how?
LIAM: I guess I do things in a kind of bass ackwards way where I come up with an idea first, then go and look into it and see if it's got legs. I'll generally start off with a Google search, pick out relevant sites and books, build up a dossier of stuff I need to know or things that will make a character or a scenario stand out. Of course with comics there's always a temptation to just go completely nuts and unreal with an idea, and sometimes that's just more fun. But the research lets you know which way to go, so that's important.
JMH: What is your writing process like?
LIAM: Pretty ramshackle at times. I have my idea, or the brief from an editor, and I'll start rolling it round in my head until I get some images or lines that I think will fit. then comes either the research or taking an idea for a walk and seeing how far I can push it. If it's a big storyline, I'll write an outline with the details, but shorter stuff I sometimes just dive in and see what happens.
Once that's done, I'm generally have something like a first draft to work from, and from there the hard work comes - re-writing editing and spell-checking, making sure it all hangs together. I always hope for that rare thing of a first draft that comes out just how you like it, and I'm always disappointed! Ha!
JMH: Do your stories carry a message?
LIAM: Sometimes, but I try to be an entertainer first. Brian Johnson from AC/DC once said that people who work hard to earn their money don't wanna spend it on having some b*****d preaching at them, and I mostly agree with that. I want readers to enjoy the adventure. But entertainment has the power to engage, so a little bit of information once in a while enriches things for an audience. It depends on what the story calls for really.
JMH: Do you feel more comfortable with writing prose or comic book sequential storytelling?
LIAM: Sequentials for definite. There are some writers out there who can spend half a page describing water-lillies on a pond and what they mean to a person, but that's just not me.
JMH: What future projects are in the works?
LIAM: Well, WULFEN is going to hopefully continue. Our third issue is with Mike Rickaby, the editor at CE, and I've got another series called THE PERFECTORS that I'm trying to get tied together for a self-launch. I've also got a one-shot horror story called A HOUSE LIKE THIS that's being drawn by the awesome Jason Miller, and I'm co-writing a graphic novel called HAVEN that will hopefully be fully scripted early next year. I've also got some TV and film stuff in the pipeline that will wow studios into hiring me for big money all going well!
JMH: Where can fans get a hold of your books?
LIAM: They can check out the WULFEN Facebook page -facebook.com/wulfencomic - which has links to all the sites where readers can follow Wulf and his adventures, and there'll be updates about all my writing exploits as they come out. They can also check out CE Publishing's pages on Facebook and Graphicly. And of course there's all the lovely IMPERIALS work on Red Leaf Comics.
JMH: How can fans and publishers contact you?
LIAM: Either through the Wulfen facebook page or my email, [email protected]
JMH: Anything else you'd like to mention that we haven't covered yet?
LIAM: No. I think that covers it!
JMH: Liam, CBI appreciates your time! All the best!
LIAM: Thanks! It's been a blast!
CBI talked with Irish writer and creator Liam Kavanagh about his career in comics...
JMH: Where were you born and raised?
LIAM: I was born in County Wexford in the South-East of Ireland and raised on a farm in a small village there called Kilmuckridge, where I still live.
JMH: Tell CBI about yourself…
LIAM: I'm 28 years old, and divide my time between writing for comics with writing for stage and screen as well as being part of the writing staff at media website www.the-arcade.ie. My hobbies are watching movies, playing guitar, playing and watching soccer, gaming and of course reading comics!
JMH: Have you had any formal training in writing?
LIAM: I spent 4 years in Tallaght IT in Dublin on their Audio Visual Media Degree, which included training in writing and filmmmaking, but I had been teaching myself for years before that.
JMH: Who are your writing influences?
LIAM: I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and I take a lot of influence from screenwriters like Shane Black, Joss Whedon, Charlie Kaufman, genre writers like David Goyer John Milius and Steven E. DeSouza, and Stephen J. Cannell (that's a lot of Stephens!) Comics wise, I'd be kicked out of the club if I didn't mention Stan Lee, Frank Miller, and Alan Moore.
JMH: How did you break into writing comic books?
LIAM: I started off trying to get my own comics company off the ground, which eventually gave rise to the ongoing series Wulfen, that I write for CE Publishing with artist Ed Doyle. After that I branched out with some short stories for anthologies like FutureQuake and MEGABOOK. I owe a lot to online resources like Digital Webbing and LinkedIn for opening up contacts with artists and avenues where I could get my writing out to indie publishers too.
JMH: What is the first comic you remember reading?
LIAM: It was a Green Lantern one-shot that came with an action figure I got at around age 7. Wish I still had the model ring that came with it too, since it’d be about the only bling I’d ever wear!
JMH: Do you read any of the new comic books that are being published today?
LIAM: I'm a little behind on new issues, but I really dig a lot of the new stuff that's out, things like Batman RIP amd The Dark Avengers are amazing. The problem nowadays is there's so much stuff out there that I kind of have to be a magpie with it now - pick whatever catches my eye and hope for the best.
JMH: Print versus Digital. Your thoughts…
LIAM: I think there's room for both. Digital lets you do so much, it's a great method of expanding the market particularly for indie creators, but print will always be around because no matter how good the technology gets and how wide it reaches, you can't beat the feeling of opening up a new comic, turning to the first page and getting lost in the stories.
JMH: Writer’s block. How do you get around that creature?
LIAM: The Drawer. Or The Chest. Or whatever you call the place where you keep those little ideas you have when the writing is flowing well but can't get to at the time. When I have writer's block, I dig out those ideas, go back over them, see if I can find something to spark some inspiration, or just clean up something. When I'm busy with that, it makes room for whatever I'm stuck on to work through.
JMH: Talk about the New IMPERIALS...
LIAM: Well, first off the writer's awesome! Just kidding. I love the idea of THE IMPERIALS, because they're kind of classical, they've got those ties to the World War II Imperials, and Network is your classic James Bond spy outfit, and kind of niche at the same time. A lot of popular hero characters lose some of their quirk trying to be broader and rope in international audiences, and you have to try and look in different places to find original twists for characters like this. British and Irish history has lots of it; myths, legends, crazy inventors and inventions, always something to get the imagination going and give a character personality. Culverin for instance - in issue 1 he names the suit after that type of cannon because that's how he behaves. Big, noisy and capable of causing serious damage.
The other reason I like the concept is purely personal - I love teams-on-missions stories. The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, obviously The Avengers, everyone with a special skill and a personality that mixes together to get the job done. If I get The Imperials anywhere close to that level, then I'll consider my job done.
JMH: What are your plans for future stories?
LIAM: Well I don't wanna give too much away, cause I won't be alone putting it all together, but if you've read issue one, there's plenty of stuff to come - Avalon has to meet up with the other Imperials, we're gonna find out more about BlackRod, and of course just what that project the mysterious stranger in those last panels was talking about is. Let's just say that The Imperials haven't smashed their last robot suit by a long stretch...
JMH: Do you research your story ideas? If so, how?
LIAM: I guess I do things in a kind of bass ackwards way where I come up with an idea first, then go and look into it and see if it's got legs. I'll generally start off with a Google search, pick out relevant sites and books, build up a dossier of stuff I need to know or things that will make a character or a scenario stand out. Of course with comics there's always a temptation to just go completely nuts and unreal with an idea, and sometimes that's just more fun. But the research lets you know which way to go, so that's important.
JMH: What is your writing process like?
LIAM: Pretty ramshackle at times. I have my idea, or the brief from an editor, and I'll start rolling it round in my head until I get some images or lines that I think will fit. then comes either the research or taking an idea for a walk and seeing how far I can push it. If it's a big storyline, I'll write an outline with the details, but shorter stuff I sometimes just dive in and see what happens.
Once that's done, I'm generally have something like a first draft to work from, and from there the hard work comes - re-writing editing and spell-checking, making sure it all hangs together. I always hope for that rare thing of a first draft that comes out just how you like it, and I'm always disappointed! Ha!
JMH: Do your stories carry a message?
LIAM: Sometimes, but I try to be an entertainer first. Brian Johnson from AC/DC once said that people who work hard to earn their money don't wanna spend it on having some b*****d preaching at them, and I mostly agree with that. I want readers to enjoy the adventure. But entertainment has the power to engage, so a little bit of information once in a while enriches things for an audience. It depends on what the story calls for really.
JMH: Do you feel more comfortable with writing prose or comic book sequential storytelling?
LIAM: Sequentials for definite. There are some writers out there who can spend half a page describing water-lillies on a pond and what they mean to a person, but that's just not me.
JMH: What future projects are in the works?
LIAM: Well, WULFEN is going to hopefully continue. Our third issue is with Mike Rickaby, the editor at CE, and I've got another series called THE PERFECTORS that I'm trying to get tied together for a self-launch. I've also got a one-shot horror story called A HOUSE LIKE THIS that's being drawn by the awesome Jason Miller, and I'm co-writing a graphic novel called HAVEN that will hopefully be fully scripted early next year. I've also got some TV and film stuff in the pipeline that will wow studios into hiring me for big money all going well!
JMH: Where can fans get a hold of your books?
LIAM: They can check out the WULFEN Facebook page -facebook.com/wulfencomic - which has links to all the sites where readers can follow Wulf and his adventures, and there'll be updates about all my writing exploits as they come out. They can also check out CE Publishing's pages on Facebook and Graphicly. And of course there's all the lovely IMPERIALS work on Red Leaf Comics.
JMH: How can fans and publishers contact you?
LIAM: Either through the Wulfen facebook page or my email, [email protected]
JMH: Anything else you'd like to mention that we haven't covered yet?
LIAM: No. I think that covers it!
JMH: Liam, CBI appreciates your time! All the best!
LIAM: Thanks! It's been a blast!
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